Musical Chairs: Drawing political districts leaves minority party without a seat when the music stops

Gerrymandering

• In 1812, a political cartoon was drawn in reaction to the newly drawn state senate districts to favor the Democratic-Republican Party candidates of Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry. The cartoon showed a district in the shape of a salamander, and the term gerrymander was born.

• The U.S. Census is taken every 10 years. The next one is in 2020.

• New political districts are drawn across the country once the census is completed and are in effect for 10 years.

• Lawsuits in states around the country are challenging district boundaries as gerrymandered to benefit the party in power.

• A move is underway in Michigan for a ballot proposal that would shift the drawing of congressional and legislative districts from the Michigan Legislature to an independent commission.

With the Supreme Court poised to take up challenges to Wisconsin’s political boundaries, and Republicans controlling the majority of state legislatures across the country, how the next set of political districts is drawn is now a major issue.

Michigan is among the states that have a Republican legislature that drew the last congressional and legislative districts. An analysis by The Associated Press concluded districts in Michigan and other states were gerrymandered – or drawn to benefit the party in the majority.

New districts will be drawn nationally after the 2020 census. Currently, 32 states having a Republican majority of U.S. House members. Republicans also control 31 state Houses nationally, 37 state Senates, and 33 governor’s offices.

The shape of Michigan’s 14th District today is the poster child for growing cries of gerrymandering – and efforts to change how political districts are drawn in Michigan and who draws them.

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The S-shaped 14th District starts in Pontiac, straddles both sides of Eight Mile Road, and ends in Detroit.

“We are preparing to file a lawsuit,” said Southfield attorney Mark Brewer, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. “There are a lot of odd-shaped districts.”

Behind the looming Michigan lawsuit is legal action challenging district boundaries in other states, particularly Wisconsin.

“Last fall, the Wisconsin federal court looked at the shapes of the districts and new tests political scientists came up with, and decided the Wisconsin House was a political gerrymander,” Brewer said. “We think a federal court would reach same conclusion (in Michigan).”

Other legal actions are pending or underway in Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona in advance of the next census and the redistricting that follows.

Musical Chairs

In the game ‘Musical Chairs’, there’s one fewer seat than people playing, and one person is left out when the music stops.

So it was when Michigan lost a congressional seat after the 2010 U.S. Census, and new political district boundaries launched the political game of ‘Musical Chairs’ that played out in southeast Michigan.

After the 2010 census, Michigan’s Republican-dominated Legislature drew new political boundaries for congressional districts, and for state House and Senate districts that took effect in 2012.

Detroit’s 13th District U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke found himself in a newly drawn 14th Congressional District that pushed into Oakland County, as did then-U.S. Rep. Gary Peters after his 9th District was shifted east.

Both Democrats, Peters went on to win the primary against Clarke and win the seat, while Democrats, overall, lost a seat in the U.S. House.

Peters, now one of Michigan’s U.S. senators, also supports an independent commission to draw the political boundaries after the next census.

“We need an independent and nonpartisan commission to oversee the redistricting process so that state politicians are not picking their own voters and creating extremely partisan districts that erode any opportunity for legislators to find common ground,” Peters said. “Lansing Republicans drew some of the most gerrymandered districts in the country, including the district I previously represented.

“And in 2016, despite the fact that the Michigan voters cast nearly the same number of ballots for Republican and Democratic Congressional candidates, Republicans won nine seats and Democrats won five seats — an outcome that fails to represent the choice of many Michigan voters.”

Gerrymandering

In 1812, a political cartoon was drawn in reaction to the newly drawn state senate districts to favor the Democratic-Republican Party candidates of Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry. The cartoon showed a district in the shape of a salamander, and the term gerrymander was born.

Today it refers to drawing legislative districts for the political advantage of one party over another.

General requirements for drawing new congressional and legislative districts is that they be:

• Of equal population,

• Contiguous, meaning that districts don’t skip over territory.

• Compact,

• Respect community boundaries where possible,

• Racially fair.

Efficiency Gap

An analysis by The Associated Press looked at a formula that measures the “efficiency gap,” which is basically the number of seats a party has compared to the vote share within a district that a party received.

The AP analysis looked at the results of all 435 U.S. House races and about 4,700 state House and Assembly seats up for election nationally last year and found a decided advantage for Republicans.

The analysis found four times as many states with Republican-skewed state House or Assembly districts than Democratic ones. Among the two dozen most populated states that determine the vast majority of Congress, there were nearly three times as many with Republican-tilted U.S. House districts.

Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and Virginia were among the states with significant Republican advantages in either their U.S. or state House districts compared to the number of votes cast for each party, according to the AP analysis.

All had districts drawn by Republicans after the last Census in 2010.

The AP analysis found that Republicans won as many as 22 additional U.S. House seats over what would have been expected, based on the average vote share in congressional districts across the country.

Nonpartisan civil servants called the Legislative Service Agency draws political boundaries in Iowa.

Independence in drawing political districts is what’s needed in Michigan, said Brewer, the Southfield attorney.

“One of the problems is that the Legislature HAS been doing it,” Brewer said. “What many states have done is move the process to independent commissions with very strict rules. It is a way to restrict the extreme gerrymandering we have seen across the country.”

Oakland County

It’s not just congressional and legislative districts that have experienced gerrymandering and odd shaped districts.

Oakland County’s 21 county commission districts have a couple that look like a set of stairs.

Those districts came about after a change in 2011 in how local county district boundaries are drawn.

Until 2012, county commission districts were drawn by a committee of the county Republican and Democratic party chairs, and the county clerk, county treasurer and county prosecutors.

For the first time in 2008, Democrats won enough of the county seats where they would have controlled drawing county commission boundaries after the 2010 Census.

But White Lake Republican Mike Kowall in 2011 introduced legislation to let the county commission draw its own boundaries, and to reduce the number of county commissioners from 25 to 21.

The legislation passed, and Republicans today hold a 14-7 advantage on the county commission.

However, voters have elected four Democrats to the six countywide offices.

Macomb County

Michigan Republicans changed the boundaries of state House districts in the southwest portion of Macomb County by moving the northern border of the 25th District farther north in Sterling Heights. The gerrymander left two seated Democrats from neighboring districts – Lesia Liss and Jon Switalski – pitted against each other in the next election.

The district includes the eastern half of Sterling Heights and a diagonal slice of northwest Warren. The 25th District seat currently is held by Democrat Henry Yanez, a former Sterling Heights firefighter who won election in 2012.

Yanez said the GOP – with majorities in both the House and Senate – has taken stances on issues and legislation without consideration of Democrats, confident they alone can get any Republican-introduce bills passed. He also noted that the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate “were not included” in the most recent state budget process.

“We Democrats throughout the state represent about 4.5 million citizens. These are people left out of the process of government every single day because of gerrymandering,” Yanez said. “That is not good for democracy.”

From a political advantage angle, gerrymandering is akin to the victor enjoying the spoils. It also creates the potential of even more money pouring into the political process, as candidates who run for office in districts that are strongholds of the opposing party are forced to seek more campaign contributions in order to fund efforts to unseat an entrenched incumbent.

Yanez feels gerrymandering can be erased only through grassroots efforts at the ballot box.

When gerrymandering creates legislative districts at the local, state or federal level that become strongholds for either party, it increases the importance of August primary elections. If an incumbent Republican and incumbent Democrat face a serious challenge from a candidate within their own party in a district that has favored one party for several years or even generations, it increases the significance of that runoff election. To that end, some political observers believe the primary election becomes THE election. However, far fewer people cast ballots in the summer than in November – leaving outcomes in the hands.

The boundaries of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners also changed dramatically in 2011 – but not by the party in power in the Legislature. County voters in late 2010 approved the change to the county executive form of government. With it, the number of commission districts was cut in half – from 26 to 13. Still, most have irregular borders creating odd angles and edges.

But it took only two years for the borders of several commission districts to be redrawn. Among the most significant changes:

• Harrison Township was split off from District 9 – held at the time by former Republican Commissioner Fred Miller – that also included Mount Clemens and portion of Clinton Township immediately south of the city. Most of northern Clinton Township and a portion of south Macomb Township were then added to Mount Clemens to form the “new” District 9.

• Most of St. Clair Shores was then linked to Harrison Township to form the new District 10 that resembles an hourglass.

• The city of Richmond was removed from District 8 in northeast Macomb County, and added to District 7. The northern half of Macomb Township – a municipality dominated by GOP voters – was taken out of that commission area to carve a new District 13. However, the District 7 seat currently held by Republican Don Brown was revised to add the northeast quadrant of Shelby Township.

• Voters in the city of Utica who had been represented in 2012 by Republican Commissioner Joe Sabatini of Macomb Township in District 13 became constituents of Republican Jim Carabelli of District 6 (Shelby Township) in 2013.